The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

68 in the courtroom left the viewer to question what “circumstances” in Iran fueled her desire to flee the country with her daughter Termeh. When A Separation was the first Iranian film to win an Academy Award for Best Foregin Language Film, director Asghar Farhadi had successfully built a connection from American viewers to modern Iran. By creating Simin, Farhadi gave a face and name to an Iranian woman living with the struggle in Tehran yet delivered this message subtly enough to allow the movie to be released. In a review of the film, Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books, says: The most important aspect of Iran is the people that have always, in fact, resisted their oppression—not just with protests, but also by continuing to live the way they lived before the regime. A movie like A Separation brings out that same aspect of Iran, the human aspect. When you see a film like A Separation, you realize not how different Americans are from the Iranian regime, but how similar they are to the Iranian people. (Hayoun) Works Cited Bongiorni, Francesco. “Veiled Threat.” New Yorker 85.31 (2009): 38-43. Literary Reference Center. Web. 2 Dec. 2013 Curtis, Glenn E., and Eric J. Hooglund. Iran: A Country Study. 5th ed. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, 2008. Print. Esfandiari, Haleh. “For Women Of TheArab Spring, IranianWomen Provide AWarning And AModel.”Turkish Policy Quarterly 11.4 (2012): 81-89. Political Science Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. Hayoun, Massoud. “The Atlantic.” The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. Moaddel, Mansoor. Islamic Modernism, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism: Episode and Discourse. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005. Print. Moghissi, Haideh. “Arab Uprisings and Women’s Rights: Some Lessons from Iran.” Against The Current. 28.3 (2013): 18- 22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2013